


goetic

by loupettes



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Family Fluff, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27331876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loupettes/pseuds/loupettes
Summary: “Mum! You gotta put your hands on the planchette at all times, remember?!” Tony snapped. The Doctor closed his eyes to stop himself from groaning in despair.Tentoo, Rose, Tony and Jackie. Humour and nonsense. Happy halloween!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	goetic

It really was atrocious, the lengths she was going to, this evening in particular, to beat him. 

It all started one night when they were watching a horror film. Rose had overworked herself that week and, just as she always did when she was stressed, decided to stay with her mum over the weekend. She tricked him _somehow_ into going with her; she _knew_ he had barely any agency when it came to a sick Rose and denying her requests. They’d spent the day in the countryside, walking and having a lazy wrapped-up-cosy picnic, and in the evening Rose fell asleep under a fluffy duvet on the sofa, her head on her mum’s lap and the Doctor on the other side of Jackie. Tony had gone to bed and Pete was at an overnight conference, so the three of them stayed up to watch _Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway_ until Rose nodded off, leaving the Doctor and Jackie to flick through the channels to find something good to watch. 

Now, Jackie _hated_ horror films, but there was a particularly attractive main character that she rather fancied, so, feeling more courageous with the Doctor sitting right beside her, they left it on just to see. As it turned out, it was quite good; the right amount of tension and mystery that had her shouting out her predictions every few minutes, much to the Doctor’s irritation. But there would be the occasional jump scare that would get both of them, up to the point where Rose awoke to the two of them grabbing each other’s arms in suspense. 

Once the film had finished, Jackie told them of her adamancy that their house was haunted. Whilst she loved the extravagance of their old mansion, they’d decided to relocate somewhere where Tony could play with the neighbours and Jackie wouldn’t have so many rooms to clean, plus the fact that the grandiosity of that large house never did suit either of them. They’d settled on a nice house in Surrey - friendly neighbourhood, good school nearby, that sort of stuff. But the house was _creepy_ ; things kept going missing, odd noises around the house at night, shadows out of the corner of her eye or from under the doors. There were a few occasions where she’d walk into a room for the first time that morning and smell her own perfume, clear as day, as if she’d just been there. Jackie tried to persuade Pete it was haunted. Pete, of course, didn't believe her, and so she remained alone in her suspicions. 

Later that night, once they’d all retired to bed, Rose discovered that it was in fact the Doctor messing with her the whole time.

“Are you _serious_?”

“Yes, I am!” he confirmed. “There’s something about messing with your mother that brings me joy unlike anything else.”

She whacked his arm. “That’s my mum! You saw her downstairs, you’ve got her all freaked out!” He grinned and she whacked him once more.

“I _know_! That’s what makes it so great - she _believes_ it!”

“I can’t believe you." She shook her head in disbelief. "What about Tony, hmm? Mum starts talking about a haunted house, you’re gonna scare the boy for life!”

“Oh, Tony’s in on it too.”

“ _What_?!”

“Yep. I needed his help! She’d start getting suspicious if the haunted stuff only ever happened when _we_ were there!” 

"You enlisted my little brother in your horrible pranks on _his_ _own mother_!?"

"Yep."

Rose was quiet for a moment, thinking. 

“I want in.”

“You just _whacked me_ for being in myself!”

“Yeah, but it sounds like a laugh. Plus, reckon we could make a bet of it." She looked up, searching for a wager. "First person she accuses loses and has to pay the other two 50 quid.”

The Doctor stared back at her; she was almost as barbarous as he was. He can't say he didn't fancy it. “What about Tony?”

“He’ll be game for 50 quid.”

“You’re going to introduce your _ten-year-old brother_ to the world of _betting_?”

“For 50 quid? Ye _ah!_ ”

So it began. Over the course of a few months, each of them would take turns in the tomfoolery; Tony kept spraying her perfume in rooms unentered; Rose conducted the uninspired cupboards and draws wide open in the kitchen one morning trick. Lucky enough for all of them, whenever they’d staged something creepy to happen in another room, Jackie would instruct the Doctor to go and check, who only needed to shrug upon his return and shake his head. _“Nope, nothing.”._

One evening, they suggested Jackie record herself sleeping, maybe see if there were any noises or the likes happening at night. Get it as evidence. The three of them waited up until deep into the night, before Tony crept into the bedroom to make odd scratching noises and whispers besides her phone. He darted back to the Doctor and Rose when Pete began to stir.

A few weeks later, they were all playing a round of cards with takeaway Chinese when Rose decided it was time to up the stakes.

“Why don’t we try a ouija board, mum?”

The Doctor’s head snapped up. _What was she doing!_ Eyes wide, he looked at Tony, who was staring at Rose intensely. He caught the Doctor’s eye and they both looked wearily at each other. 

Jackie looked horrified. “But what if it _answers_? What if there really _is_ a ghost living in this house?”

“Well, then you’d find out. Once and for all, hmm?” Rose offered, shrugging nonchalantly. “Maybe dad’s just playing a trick on us all, so we get a ouija board and if nothing comes of it, then we can play him at his own game. Y’know, play a few tricks on him ourselves.”

Jackie chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah, but in those horror films, whenever they play with one of those things it only makes it worse.”

Rose shook her head. “Na, that’s just for the scares. If we _do_ get something, then it’ll probably just let us know it's around and keep on doing its own thing."

Jackie looked at the Doctor. “I don't know, what do you think?”

Rose had to stifle a giggle, knowing how uncomfortable he was with being put on the spot. She could see him tugging away at his ear, not daring to look at her. “Well, I mean - it could, it might do. We’d have to - I mean, are you - it's bit creepy, no?”

"Creepy! You! Don’t _you_ wimp out on _me_ \- ”

“Whats a ouija board?” Tony piped up, Rose near giving the game away as she struggled desperately to keep a straight face. 

“It’s sort of like a way of talking to any spirits nearby,” Jackie explained, looking directly at Tony who, by some absolute miracle, also managed to maintain a facade. “Not that you’re doing it!” she snapped, pointing at him.

“Oh mum, _please_!”

“Nope, no chance!”

“Come on, mum!" Rose persuaded. "Look, chances are dad’s just messin’, but if there _is_ a ghost in this house then Tony’s gonna find out one way or another. Better we all be together when we all find out.”

Jackie sighed in defeat. “Alright, but _you’re_ paying for his therapy if he winds up traumatised.”

“Deal.”

So they went out and got a ouija board. The Doctor kept reminding her that she was going to lose, that Jackie would point the finger at her first. 

“Why on Earth would she think it’d be me when I was the one who suggested it?”

“You’ll be the _first_ one she thinks is making it up, thinking you're being clever but she'll see straight through it!”

“Na. That board moves - she’s flawed.”

The night before the planned experiment, the Doctor, Rose and Tony congregated to settle on a plan. The pitched a duvet-tent in his room, a bowl of popcorn and a torch to tell creepy stories with to get them in the right frame of mind.

“Just, follow my lead, ok?” Rose instructed. “I’ll move the board, you guys just follow.”

“At least tell us what you’re planning on telling her," The Doctor reasoned. "That way we’ll be prepared and won’t bloody burst out laughing when you write “cheese” or whatever you plan on going with.”

“Na, it's best if none of you know, then you don’t have to fake shock.”

“Alright, well what if for whatever reason you have to drop out? Get a phone call or, I don't know, die from laughing. Then what? Me and Tony just left winging it?”

“Alright, fine. I’m putting Tony in charge, if I have to drop off for whatever reason.”

“Yes!” Tony clapped.

“ _What_! Why Tony?!”

“I don’t trust you to come up with anything scary enough.”

“I was the one who _started_ this whole thing!”

Tony scoffed. “You got the heebie-jeebies the other day when Rose tripped the fuse!”

The Doctor huffed, stuffing his hand into the bowl of popcorn, muttering his worthless protests in defeat. 

The next evening, they lit the candles and set up the room as per the instructions. The four of them sat on the floor in a circle, knees touching one another’s and held hands in anticipation. 

“Mum, you wanna ask the questions?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Jackie said, a bit shaky. “Don’t know what to ask. I’m already quite freaked out."

"Doctor?"

He flashed her a glare and she held back a smile. “You gotta start with a “yes” or “no” answer question.”

The Doctor sighed, somehow managing to pass it off as a nervous breath when Jackie looked at him. They all placed their fingertips on the planchette and he paused before beginning. “Is there a spirit among us who wishes to communicate?”

The planchette rested in the middle of the board until it began to move slowly towards the “yes”. The Doctor opened his eyes only to roll them; he could even _feel_ Rose pushing it. There was not a chance in hell Jackie was falling for this, but when he glanced over to her the bloody women was indeed freaked. She opened her eyes when the planchette stopped and gasped when she saw the “yes” in the magnifier.

“Oh my _god_!”

Rose gasped too. “Mum! You were _right_! Oh my god, I didn’t _believe_ you!”

“I _told_ you, didn’t I!” She snapped her hands off the planchette, shaking them and wiping the sweat on her dressing gown. 

“Mum! You gotta put your hands on the planchette at all times, remember?!” Tony snapped. The Doctor closed his eyes to stop himself from groaning in despair.

"Doctor? Keep going."

The audacity. She was _loving_ this. "Who is in this room?"

They all opened their eyes to follow the movements of the planchette. Jackie spoke the letters aloud as the planchette landed on them, one by one. “I - - A - M - - J - A - C - K - I -“

The Doctor shook his head at Rose, who kept looking up at him and smirking; she had _got_ to be kidding. “ _You’re not subtle_.” He mouthed at her, and Tony smirked.

\- E - - T - Y - L - E - R”

Jackie gasped. “Oh my God! How is that _possible_?!” She jumped to her feet, pointing shakily at the board. “Oh my god. I could smell my perfume! I said so, didn't I! It's me?! Is it me form the future?! When I'm dead?!” She turned her attention to the Doctor. “Can that _happen_?!”

The groan was brewing in his throat, but he suppressed it. “Of course it can! Timelines _can_ converge when the realms are different. You're alive, but the other you isn't. So they can exist simultaneously.”

The Doctor was waffling, and Rose shook her head in simultaneous disbelief and awe at his persistence in the face of frustration.

Jackie screamed, snapping up the board and throwing its counterparts in the box. “ _Enough_! Which one of you’s messin’ with me?!”

Rose held her hands up defensively. “Swear down, mum, it’s not me!”

“Nor me!”

Tony shrugged. “I still don’t really know what a juju board is.”

A _perfectly_ timed, _impeccably so_ , unexplainable thud bellowed from upstairs. The four of them screamed.

Jackie huffed in fright, hastily gathering the box and blowing out the candles. “I’ve had enough of this. I’m chucking this thing _out!_ ”

She rushed to the door, flicking every light switch on possible as she went. Once out of earshot, the three of them took one look at each other, and burst into laughter.

“Right,” The Doctor eventually said as they caught their breaths, wiping a tear from his eye. “Shall I get started on preparing the scéance?”


End file.
